s u G I A Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika Herausgegeben an den Universitâten Kôln und Bayreuth Band 6 1984/85 Helmut Buske Verlag Hamburg AFRIKANISTIK im HELMUT BUSKE VERLAG HAMBURG HEINE, B./SCHADEBERG, TH. C./WOLFF, E. (Hg).: Die Sprachen Afrikas. Ein Handbuch. 1981. 665 S. m. 26 Karten u. zahlr. Tabellen DM 124.- ISBN 3-87118-433-0 -: Die Sprachen Afrikas. Studienausgabe Band 1: DE WOLFF/MÔHLIG/SCHADEBERG: Niger-Kordofanisch. 1981. XVI, S. 45-128 DM 16.- ISBN 3-87118-488-8 -: - Band 2: SASSE/STÔRK/WOLFF: Afroasiatisch. 1981. XVI, S. 129-262 mit 7 Karten DM 22.- ISBN 3-87118-489-6 -: - Band 3: SCHADEBERG: Nilosaharanisch. 1981. XVI, S. 263-328 mit 6 Karten DM 14.- ISBN 3-87118-490-x -: - Band 4: WINTER: Khoisan. 1981. XVI, S. 329-374 DM 10.- ISBN 3-87118-491-8 -: - Band 5: GERHARDT/HEINE/VOSSEN/MÔHLIG: Sprachvergleichung. 1981. XVI, S. 375-478 mit 3 Karten DM 18.- ISBN 3-87118-492-6 -: - Band 6: ROTTLAND/VOSSEN/REH: Sprache im Kontext. 1981. XVI, S. 17-44 + 479-630 mit 5 Karten DM 29.80 ISBN 3-87118-493-4 AFRICAN LINGUISTIC BIBLIOGRAPHIES (ISSN 0721-2488) edited by Franz Rottland & Rainer VoGen Vol. 1: REH, M.: Problems of Linguistic Communication in Africa. 1981. 230 pp with 2 maps DM 42.- ISBN 3-87118-509-4 Vol. 2: LAMBERTI, M.: Somali Bibliography. 1985. ca. 124 pp. ISBN 3-87118-707-0 KUSCHITISCHE SPRACHSTUDIEN - CUSHITIC LANGUAGE STUDIES (ISSN 0721-4340) edited by Hans-Jurgen Sasse Vol. 1: SASSE, H.-J.: An Etymological Dictionary of Burji. 1982. XIV, 256 pp DM 48. - ISBN 3-87118-561-2 Vol. 2: HAYWARD, D.: The Arbore Language: A First Investigation. Including a Voca- bulary. 1985. XIV, 468 pp with 1 map. DM 78.- ISBN 3-87118-647-3 Vol. 3: SAEED, J. I.: The Syntax of Focus & Topic in Somali. Based on a doctoral diss, presented at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London 1982. 1985. 234 pp. DM 38.- ISBN 3-87118-672-4 Vol. 4: OWENS, J.: A Grammar of Harar Oromo (Northeastern Ethiopia). Including a Text and a Glossary. 1985.282 pp. DM48- ISBN 3-87118-717-8 SPRACHE UND GESCHICHTE IN AFRIKA SUGIA. Herausgegeben am Institut fur Afrikanistik der Universitat zu Kôln von B. Heine, Wilh. J. G. Môhlig, E Rottland, R. Vossen, J. C. Winter (ISSN 0170-5946) SUGIA 1 - 1979. 227 S., 4 Karten DM 36.- ISBN 3-87118-378-4 SUGIA 2 - 1980. 335 S., 3 Karten DM 48.- ISBN 3-87118-432-2 SUGIA 3 - 1981. 359 S., mit 14 Tab. und 40 Karten 4- Klarsichtfolie DM 54.- ISBN 3-87118-486-1 SUGIA 4 - 1982. 276 S. mit 7 Karten und 2 Abb. DM 42- ISBN 3-87118-564-7 SUGIA 5 - 1983. 240 S. mit 7 Karten DM 38.- ISBN 3-87118-656-2 SUGIA - Beihefte 1: SCHADEBERG, TH. C.: A survey of Kordofanian I: The Heiban Group. 1981. 199 pp with 2 maps DM 30.- ISBN 3-87118-461-6 SUGIA - Beihefte 2: SCHADEBERG, TH. C.: A Survey of Kordofanian II: The Talodi Group. 1981. 175 pp with 2 maps DM 28. - ISBN 3-87118-498-5 SUGIA - Beihefte 3: HINNEBUSCH, THOMAS J./NURSE, DEREK/MOULD, MARTIN: Studies in the Classification of Eastern Bantu Languages. 1981. XII, 261 pp with 3 maps + 30 tables DM 44- ISBN 3-87118-511-6 Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 6 (1984/85) 309-373 COMMUNICATION BY UBANGIAN WATER AND WORD by Wi11i am J. Samari n University of Toronto CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Colonial objectives 3. Steamboats and early exploration: 1883-1888 4. French expeditions 5. Belgian expeditions 6. Difficulties with the people around Bangui 6.1. Population around Bangui 6.2. Relations with indigenous population 7. The Gbanziris and canoes 7.1. Description of canoes 7.2. Gbanziri canoes 8. Development of Sango peoples 8.1. The Marchand expedition 8.2. Factors in recruitment 9. Yakomas become whites ~ 10. The Yakoma language becomes less and more 310 WILLIAM J. SAMARIN 1. Introduction The contact situation in which Pidgin Sango (PS) emerged and developed in the Ubangi basin consisted of a very limited number of kinds of interaction between the indigenous population and the foreigners coming into the territory. Most of them, if not all, can be comprehended under the rubric of what these people needed or wanted. The natives were happy to acquire the material goods which they had never seen before or those they had seen but had acquired with great difficulty. They were happy also to be associated with such impressive and powerful people (as long as their own neighbors did not have the same oppor- tunity) and to have their "protection". Indeed, they were crafty enough to entertain ideas about exploiting the foreigners. (Actual events bear out the last supposition.) The Whites coming up the Ubangi river had greater needs - desperate needs one can even say. They required transportation, guides, workers, property, and material for the construction of their buildings. They required also food, not so much for them- selves initially (and for some time only in a small degree), but for the Black personnel they brought with them. The other needs of the Black expatriates we can imagine. One of these - not irrelevant to the use of language at that period - was attributed to these latter by a number of Whites. It was their opinion that sex was easily satisfied; of their own similar activities they are discreetly silent. The means of satisfying these needs was, of course, by re- ciprocating favors (frequently based on ritual blood-brother- hood) and by trade. The use of force by Whites may not have « occurred frequently in the initial contacts, but was resorted to more and more as they took possession of the territory. The expatriate Blacks, on the other hand, always exploited their relationship with the Whites at the disadvantage of the natives. But we cannot tarry with these topics, although the nature of the relationships between the natives and the foreigners bears directly on how language was used (see below). UBANGIAN WATER AND WORD 311 This study is restricted to the topic of transportation. Native guides are treated in connection with the topic of inter- preters (Samarin 1984b). Workers in general, including the re- lationship between native and foreign Blacks, are discussed in a comprehensive treatment of the topic elsewhere (Samarin, in preparation). Transportation is critical to the linguistic aspect of the history of the Ubangi basin because it involved the largest number of natives coming in contact in a prolonged and intimate manner with the foreigners. When we add spatial and chronologi- cal factors to that of numbers and ethnic diversity, we have variables whose interaction we can evaluate with considerable ease of interpretation. Besides, there is more information about how transportation needs were met than about other topics: for example, that of acquiring rations for the exploratory forces. As one can see in Henry M. Stanley's account of the exploration of the Congo basin,1 this was a continual and major - at times desperate - problem. With respect to the history of PS this study of transporta- tion will support my thesis that the speakers of Vernacular Sango (VS) could not have played an important role in the cre- ation of the first jargons during initial contacts, that is, in the Lower Ubangi and at the bend of the Ubangi (in the area where Bangui is located). This study does demonstrate, however, how it was that VS came to be the basis of an eastern jargon and then spread over the whole Ubangi basin.2 Transportation here is restricted to that which took place on the Ubangi river itself. When goods and equipment were trans- ported inland, away from thè Ubangi, porters were usually nec- essary. These were usually, and in the greatest numbers, natives who agreed to move within their ethnic territory. In any case, they are discussed elsewhere. Some rivers were navigable, of course - at least during some periods of the year - and it would appear that Ubangian canoers were used to explore these rivers. We therefore do not need to set these explorations up in a 312 WILLIAM J. SAMARIN separate category. Furthermore, we concentrate on the use of canoes. They were the means by which foreigners came into direct contact with the greatest number of Ubangian people. Steamboats very soon came up to and then travelled beyond the rapids at Bangui (at that time called the Zongo rapids). But these must have had a role in Ubangian linguistic history entirely different from that of canoes. Their most important characteristic is that they were manned by downriver, therefore, for the most part, Bantu-speak- ing, personnel or by foreign Blacks who must certainly have been speaking a Bantu contact language. These would have reinforced the contributions made by the "resident" personnel in French and Belgian employ. The boats, having to stop nightly to take on firewood, would, of course, have brought many people in touch with each other. This would also have been done by taking on passengers all along the river, mixing up the various ethnic groups to a greater degree than was accomplished by canoe, whose passengers could much more easily be controlled by the ethnic owners or canoers. There is therefore some merit in looking at this steamboat.transportation. 2. Colonial objectives It would be useful, however, to first characterize the nature of the activities that the Whites were involved in. They are comprehended today by the single term "colonialism" and all of the Whites are therefore called "colonialists".